Wednesday, August 26, 1998 Last modified at 1:01 a.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 1998

Father sentenced for sons' robbery

SANTA FE (AP) - A man who enlisted his son and stepson in a drugstore robbery has been sentenced to 201/2 years in prison.

State District Judge Jim Hall on Monday sentenced Richard Abeyta to the maximum term possible under Abeyta's plea bargain with prosecutors.

Court documents accused Abeyta of planning the February 1997 robbery, then ordering his sons to carry it out so the family could pay the rent. The sons turned their father in.

Hall also sentenced Abeyta's stepson, Michael Chavez to 161/2 years in prison.

Chavez, who once worked at the drugstore, led the trio of masked robbers, prosecutors have said.

The robbers forced 11 employees at gunpoint to tie each other up, emptied the store safe and escaped in a pickup stolen from an assistant manager.

In July, Hall sentenced Abeyta's son, Wesley, and a friend, Richard Pacheco, to the state Boys' School in Springer until the year 2001, when they both turn 21. Abeyta was one of the robbers inside the store, but Pacheco backed out at the last minute and did not go inside, officials have said.